The Fashion Folly

What was her mind doing to her? She never had to make a decision this difficult in her life! It felt like more than a decision, more like a battle! She wanted Filly Billy in her life, but didn't care for what she needed. Suddenly, Billy's gang appeared behind her. The battle was over for now.

"Hey you guys", Twilight said with a tear in her eye, "why are all those ponies laughing at me? I wanted these updates to make myself look-"

"-Cool?", Filly Billy finished her sentence again. "Oh those ponies don't know what "cool" really is".

"Yeah!", Sal and Lee agreed in unison and laughed out loud in a way that made Twilight feel happy, but would've made any other pony cringe.

"Well what have you got for me this time?" Twilight asked.

Filly Billy hadn't really planned another scrap of junk for Twilight to wear. She wasn't expecting Twilight to get this into it.

"Uh Twilight, we don't have anything!", she calmly tried to say, but that was the wrong answer. Twilight fired back with,

"No! You have to have something for me, and you have to have it NOW!"

At this point, Billy's gang was actually rather frightened of Twilight. They didn't want to upset her lest they get pummelled in an E-rated way.

"Well uh, we've got…"

She looked for anything she could, up, down, and found some mud. She plastered it across Twilight's back and face.

"…a nice cape and facepaint for you", Filly Billy quietly said quivering.

"Thank you", Twilight said peacefully, briefly sounding a bit like her old self, though not smiling. She then walked off to Fluttershy's.

At that same time, Applejack was walking around Ponyville calling "Twilight!" over and over again. She had made a new pair of yellow horseshoes for Twilight made out of fine kowhai leather. They fit her so she was sure they'd fit Twilight, as they and all the rest of the Mane 6 had the same hoof size- 11.

She had made her way into the woodland area by now and still no sign of Twilight, though she did spot some rather strange-looking Valley Girls. What in Equestria would they be doing so far from the town? She wished she wouldn't have thought of that question soon after.

Filly Billy took off her large beanie to reveal a horn, meaning that she was a unicorn all along. She began talking, and Applejack hid herself from them behind a tree.

"Real talk girls, do you think my little mind control spell has gone a bit overboard?"

"Yeah" "definitely", Sal and Lee replied respectively. Lee spoke again,

"Besides, being all magical herself, it may have gotten Twilight a lot worse than we expected".

What in tarnation? Mind control? Twilight? The way they'd been talking seems as though they've been doing this for a while. Applejack came out from behind the tree and confronted them.

"What are y'all doing to my friend Twilight? Is this why she's been actin' funny?"

Filly Billy couldn't risk having her cover blown still so close to Twilight, so she tackled Applejack to the ground, covered her mouth and stared into her eyes. Her horn glowed as she stared deeper into Applejack's fear-ridden, lime green abysses. The further she stared the more she saw past the physical marbles and into her mind. Simple as an earth pony's usually was. She could see everything that Applejack had seen in recent memory. With a little more power coming from her horn, she blurred those thoughts until Applejack's mind was still. There was much more information further back, but she didn't want to take any risks. Her horn flickered off and Applejack fainted.

"What did you do?", Sal asked, clearly confused. From her angle, there wasn't a lot to see.

"I erased her memories of both her encounter with us and of Twilight's "fashion sense"", Filly Billy answered. This was a rather advanced spell, amnesia.

"Come on, let's take her back to her farm and go do something about Twilight"

"Why don't you use erase Twilight's memories of the fashion stuff?", Lee asked. "After all, it would be of more use on her than that farm girl".

"Her name is Applejack", Filly Billy replied, while carrying Applejack on her back (that was enough magic for today), "and no, doing that to Twilight would be too risky. The amnesia spell isn't that strong, it merely deeply represses a pony's memories. She's seen too many ponies now, and if they mention it to her, it would unearth the same trauma and be disastrous".

Filly Billy was only now just realising how serious all this mindplay was getting for Twilight and her friends. Staring into Applejack's mind and memories, she found just how important these 6 particular ponies were and how much they meant to each other. Her mind manipulation was driving a fork through their relationship by making Twilight, who Applejack looked up to as "the leader", a disgusting wreck. Sal and Lee didn't share Filly Billy's internal stress, they just found her to be getting tired carrying Applejack.

They returned the unconcious Applejack to Sweet Apple Acres without a soul noticing and headed back off to see where Twilight would've gotten to now. Applejack slowly woke up and noticed that the Sun was shining. Though she felt much more beat than she usually would, plus there was a pair of horseshoes that she stared at suspiciously for more than a while, she had no idea that today was tomorrow and that yesterday was today. She couldn't remember the past 24 hours, so she just assumed that she got a little dried up in the Summer heat.

"Maybe I should get Apple Bloom to do a little more work around here", she thought to herself before going inside for some recuperation.